“In the beginning was Voguing, and Voguing was with God, and Voguing was God” John 1:1

My collection is inspired in the beginnings of Voguing and in the atmosphere that defines this radical, underground subculture: the founding “houses”, the ballroom scene in the late 80’s and its current development and influence.

I understand VOGUING as a subversive social movement and as an experience that is the creator of nonnormative identities; a form of expression which is able to build a type of performance art that is just as aesthetically attractive as it is spectacular as a type of dance, as well as highly inspiring and challenging.

“Realness” is about the search for self-affirmation and freedom outside of social conditioning. The original meaning of “Realness” in the voguing scene refers to the LGBT community’s fight for an identity, social and sexual; a different identity from that set by the dominating society. That’s why the New York BALLS, a key category, value the contestants’ ability to stay under the radar with their outfits, in the recreation of this conventional and repressive world.

“In a Ballroom, you can be anything you want” Paris is Burning (1990)

“Be whoever you want to be”: this is the primary motivation behind the collection. In a Ball, all of its participants and spectators are part of an integrating community. A parallel reality that offers itself as a protective and illuminating place where diversity is not judged, rather celebrated and applauded; OVAH!

TENS

The collection is structured around four categories from the Voguing scene, ten looks each, referencing the “tens” which symbolizes the maximum number of points you can get at a Ball.

I’ve represented their necessity to come across as a “cishet” in Executive Realness; the ability to fantasize about seduction and excitement in Sex Siren; Vogue’s most feminine incarnation in Vogue Femme and the purest interpretation of fashion through Runway.

CATEGORIES:

Executive Realness is developed through Glen Plaid fabrics in a variety of grey, gold and stripe details elaborated on check fabric that is integrated in a proposal of sober suits and imaginative shapes.

Sex Siren is represented through white, black and forest green in jacquards, ginghams, chantilly embroideries, sequins and printed organzas that breathe shapes that conform to the body and hang from it at the same time.

In Vogue Femme, seductive and dramatic moves are the inspiration for the geometric and diamond prints, which serve as a second skin to support other more elaborated garments with feathers and fringe in colors that play with the tones in the print and come alive when in movement.

In Runway, silver and pink in the metallic paper fabrics play with sequins embroidered onto net fabric and iridescent prints for the the most extravagant moment of the collection, where big ruffles and volumes define the final looks for the sake of fantasia.